Homœopathy and thought

In her sermon Christian Healing, Mary Baker Eddy comments on the practice of homœopathy as follows: 

    “When studying the two hundred and sixty remedies of the Jahr, the characteristic peculiarities and the general and moral symptoms requiring the remedy, we saw at once the concentrated power of thought brought to bear upon the pharmacy of homœopathy, which made the infinitesimal dose effectual. To prepare the medicine requires time and thought; you cannot shake the poor drug without the involuntary thought, “I am making you more powerful,” and the sequel proves it; the higher attenuations prove that the power was the thought, for when the drug disappears by your process the power remains, and homœopathists admit the higher attenuations are the most powerful” (Christian Healing page 12).

Homœopathy came from Samuel Hahnemann’s reasoning and practice. G.H.G. (Gottlieb Heinrich Georg) Jahr was his disciple. It is his book, namely GHG Jahr’s Manual of Homœopathic Medicine, to which Mrs. Eddy referred in her sermon.

Hahnemann (1755-1843) was German; Jahr (1800-1875) German-French. Both were physicians.

Mrs. Eddy writes quite a lot about homœopathy in both Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and in her Prose Works other than Science and Health. Her experimentation with it was a direct link to her eventual discovery of Christian Science.

I must say I have had fun with the œ in homœopathy. Does anyone recognise it as a diphthong? Rather like the German umlaut (ä) which is written these days mostly in English as “ae.” The King James Bible has a list of signs used in the book on the page before Genesis. These help us with pronunciation of difficult words. Actually, “œ” must be rather rare for it is not listed with others.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. It appears that the œ might be losing favour as the word is often now spelt homeopathy. What a shame to miss all that fun!